Kim Campbell

She was born Avril Phaedra Douglas Campbell on March 10, 1947.

She was the Minister of Defence[?] and the first female Prime Minister of Canada, succeeding Brian Mulroney when he resigned as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party in 1993. Campbell's quick rise to fame from a realtively unknown cabinet member to Prime Minister of the country came as a bit of a shock to many Canadians. The fact that she was a woman initally made her very popular, and for a while it seemed that she might have a chance of reparing the Conservative party's reputation, which had been badly damaged after a number of scandals during the Mulroney government. An election was quickly called, and the new Prime Minister hoped to ride this wave of popularity to an electoral victory.

However, Campbell's inital popularity soon wore off. The prime minister appeared to have troubles relating to "regular" Canadians, and many felt that she had an overly condesending and pretentious tone. She once famously quipped that an election was "no time to discuss serious issues."

Campbell also had a continual habit of making PR blunders. A Conservative election commerical in which Liberal leader Jean Chretien's facial paralysis was mocked was largely regarded as the final nail in her campaign's coffin.

In the 1993 election, all but two of the Conservative party's candidates lost their seats to a massive Liberal landslide. Campbell herself failed to be re-elected, and she quickly resigned her position as party leader.

The new Liberal government appointed her as Consul General to Los Angeles.